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‘Live In This World’: Why Jenna Bush Hager’s Kids Don’t Have Phones

Jenna Bush Hager/Instagram

‘Live In This World’: Why Jenna Bush Hager’s Kids Don’t Have Phones

By Movieguide® Contributor

Jenna Bush Hager and Matthew McConaughey are some of the many parents who have decided their children won’t have cell phones “for a long time.”

“We tried to look at the upfalls and the downfalls,” McConaughey said while talking about kids on social media during an appearance on TODAY WITH HODA & JENNA. 

He explained, “We said, ‘Look, this is not like sending your kid off to college, but it is like sending your kid out with a bunch of strangers into the world. Some you will know, some you won’t; some will be fair, some will not; some will give you a thumbs down no matter what you said. They’re just trolling. Does that affect you? It’s going to affect you. It affects me!’”

The “main thing” McConaughey and his wife Camila Alves want their children to focus on? Living their lives. 

“If you’re doing something you think is worth sharing, then share it,” the actor said. “Don’t wake up every morning thinking, ‘What can I do that will be a good share?’”

Hager agreed, saying, “It’s not living! We [she and husband Henry Hager] always talk about this because we’re actually following your lead.”

“I have a 10-year-old, she won’t be getting even a phone for a long time,” the TODAY host explained. “She knows that. But also, I want her to live in this world. I don’t want her just scrolling. I want her writing songs or reading.”

Hager frequently talks about parenting and who she hopes her kids—Mila, 10, Poppy, 8, and Hal, 4—will grow up to be. 

“I spend almost all my time in parenting trying to raise kind kids,” she said during a TODAY WITH HODA & JENNA episode. “I don’t care about any of the other stuff. I don’t care about the…they are smart, great, but I don’t care that they are number one in their class or go to good schools. I just want them to be the type of kids that are kind.”

The TODAY anchor isn’t perfect, though — something she herself is quick to admit. 

“I was a good teacher, I will say that about myself, but I’m not good at teaching my own children,” she shared. “Because I may be a fun mom, and a strict mom, but I ain’t a patient one.”

Movieguide® previously reported on Hager’s views on motherhood:

Jenna Bush Hager is opening up about the motherhood moments that are “not glamorous” and “exhausting,” and how she spins those moments into something positive. 

The TODAY show host loves being a mom, but she did admit there are also “parts of mothering that are tedious and can be boring.”

She explained, “What I try to do is think that is life, those tedious parts are also that’s what we’re doing, that’s what we’re living. I try to find the love and the pleasure that I know I have for my kids even in the tedious parts of parenting.

“I hope I can have fun even when I’m exhausted and ready to go to bed and have asked them to brush their teeth for the one-hundredth time,” Hager shared. “I just want to try to love those moments because that is it, that’s all we got.”